What are the Yankees doing?

With the first week of MLB underway, I have a simple question. What the hell are the Yankees doing exactly? Does anyone truly know outside of the front office what this roster is, well besides injured.  Some of these decisions have truly boggled the mind. The trading for head case Chapman when you have 2 dominant relievers already, the acquiring of Starlin Castro, and the fact that CC Sabathia's contract is the only reason why he isn't in the bullpen. While the Aaron Hicks trade could pay dividends they gave up John Ryan Murphy in the process. Yet Hicks will see limited time, typically only against lefties, while Carlos Beltran wanders around being the albatross around Joe Girardi's neck. So as the opening week really kicks off, I worry about my believed Yankees. This roster seems like a mish-mash without any real planning to it. 

Let us start by talking about CC Sabathia. Yes, every Yankee fan should feel endeared to him for 2009's performance. The Yankees do not win that World Series without his heroics. With that said, all good things must come to an end. The decline of Sabathia has been over 3 years. Starting in 2013, Sabathia's velocity has declined and his stats have reflected that. Sabathia's record during this 3 year stretch has been 23-27 with a 4.93 ERA. He appears to refuse to admit that his velocity is gone and tries to throw like the CC of 5 seasons ago. This stretch has been marred with injuries and personal demons that thankfully CC has gotten through. That all being said, Sabathia should jot be in the starting rotation. The Yankees starting pitching is the strongest it has been in years. The top 3 starters Tanaka, Severino, and Pineda would be starters in any other rotation. Nathan Eovaldi, while being boom or bust in games has a impressive 7.06 K rate and is still young. Needless to say the rotation does not have room for Sabathia, especially coming off a horrific spring training where Sabathia went 1-3 with a 5.50 ERA. He got out pitched by Bryan Mitchell and Ivan Nova in spring training, but a injury  sidelined Mitchell. So it was down to CC and Nova, so on Friday when the Yankees announced CC the 5th starter it was disappointing and left me asking why? Though Cashman was quick to deny that Sabathia's contract had anything to do with the decision, it is the only reason I can think of for starting an aging, injury prone, deteriorating pitcher over Nova.

Aaron Hicks should start over Beltran. There I said it. Some will say thatHicks can only hit lefties. That Beltran's bat is too valuable to be sitting on the bench. Let's tackle those two arguments shall we? Yes, it has taken Aaron Hicks a few years to finally show he was worthy of his draft position in 2008. The young man has had his struggled, even getting demoted to Triple A in 2014.  Both regular and advanced metrics suggested that he was slumping.  Plate discipline seemed to be his biggest issue as he posted low 60s in swings at pitches inside the zone according to fangraphs. He never posted double digit home runs in the major leagues, until last year. Last year things clicked  for Hicks as he posted a career high in Homeruns(11), RBIs(31) and stolen bases(13). His Z swing(in the zone) increased to 68%. I know that some will say that those are not starter numbers, but they are sure a lot better than Beltran. I know some fans will say that he put up good numbers last year with 19 homeruns and 67 RBIs. Hang on let me put on my nerd glasses for a second. The percentage of pitches he swing at in the zone was 64.3 which is pretty low for a starter. But let's talk about the real reason why Beltran should jot be a starter: he is the biggest defensive liability on this team. He made 3 errors last year(Hicks made 1). His good fielding play rate according to fangraphs is at -1(Hicks rate was 2 last year). His run saved last year was -11(Hicks -3). Most damning Beltran's defensive runs saved, which measures how valuable a defensive player is was at -14(Hicks was at the league average of 1). There is no way that this defensive liability who can not steal bases anymore should be a starter in this lineup. Beltran should be riding the bench as the 4th outfielder, not Hicks. 

Now let us talk about the Yankees farm system shall we? Traditionally those outside of the Yankees fanbase have based the farm system. Have said that the Yankees did not develop real talent in their farm system rather they bought it. Of course this is historically inaccurate as they're have been several Yankees products that have led fruitful careers. Hell even last year the call ups of Severino, Greg Bird, Rob Refsnyder all proved to be productive. So you would think that the Yankees would have called up more young players to atleast be back ups of position players. After all the young players they had called up last season had produced for the team. Plus giving the young players a shot would be good as the Yankees have some older liabilities in the lineup. There was no way that the Yankees could ignore the results from last year. Well, excluding the pitchers there are 3 homegrown products on the opening week roster. 2 of them are backups, 1 is a starter. I do not understand how the Yankees can not bring up these young players and have players like Dustin Ackley on this roster. Sure Refsnyder is a defensive liability, but he is still young. Ackley is a liability on offense and defense. Why even go after Aaron Hicks when you have Ben Gamel, Aaron Judge, and Mason Williams waiting to replace Beltran? Where the hell is Gary Sanchez and why is he not the backup catcher?  None of this makes sense.